When day is done and evening falls

            I remember dusty country roads,
            The horses that pulled the heavy loads,
            The sound of cattle in the barn,
            The dog that barks out the alarm
            Of distant voices over the hill.
            "Why God, are they forever still?

            The supper is over, the dishes are done.
            The folks come out, one by one.
            I can see their dear faces now
            As they sit and discuss how
            When tomorrow it's time for me to leave,
            How in their sorrow they will grieve.

           A thousand times I've lived that scene
           And every night when I dream,
           I hear each voice, I see each face
           In that long ago place
           I remember every tear in every eye
           When they whispered their last good-bye.

          When your country calls and you must go
          It means leaving ones that love you so.
          Your body might be far away
          But your thoughts go home everyday.
          If I could return but one more time
          And see the ones I left behind.

         I see lines of men upon the road
         Sweating beneath their heavy load.
         Up ahead the sound of shot and shell
         As we move up into hell.
         I see their faces as they fall
         As shadows walk across the wall.

         The years go by, I'm old and gray
         But memories don't go away.
         I close my eyes and I can see
         The ones who waved good bye to me.
         And from the past their voices call
         When shadows walk across the walls.
 

TheLonely Grave


One day I walked a country lane
A dusty place that had no name
The only sound the hum of bees
Birds chirping in the trees
A place that only god would know
A place that very few would go.

Beneath an old tree I found a seat
Then i noticed something at my feet
With a stick I scraped away the grass
And found the grave of a young lass
Why she was laid here so long ago
Is something we will never know.

I know beneath this weathered stone
There lays a girl who's name was Joan
What deprived her of her young life?
Was it an arrow or a knife?
Or perhaps it was childbirth
That laid her here beneath the earth.

This girl who is sleeping here
Was only in her eighteenth year
Was she pretty, or was she plain?
Perhaps she was with a wagon train
And the ones who lay her here to rest
Packed up the wagons and headed west.

Did her loved ones say a prayer to god?
When they lay her beneath the sod
Did a tear drop fall upon her grave?
Did the last wagon pause to wave?
Did no one ever stop to see?
This lonely grave on the prairie.

Dear girl all the years that you been here
Did no one stop and shed a tear?
In the winter snow or summer rain
Did your loved ones ever return again?
Did no one remember you my sweet?
And place a flower at you feet.

Oh I am sure Joan my dear
That God knows you are here
You know that he has not forgot
For he led me to this spot
Its lonely souls that draws his love
Until we meet up above.

Now the evening sun is dropping low
And it is time for me to go.
I know my dear your not alone
For as I turned to head for home
I took one more look up in the sky
And saw an angel wave good bye.

Now the wagons and the pioneers
Have all been gone these many years.
As they made their way to the west
Each night as they lay down to rest.
Did they ask God, please watch and save
The girl that sleeps in the lonely grave.

Elmer Ake